Former protexter returns to campus as scholar

STANFORD -- What a difference two decades make.

When Peter Knutson left Stanford University in 1972, it was under
suspension. As an undergraduate, he took part in a demonstration that
disrupted recruiting at the Stanford Placement Center and was suspended for
three quarters. A month later he spoke, unauthorized, at a meeting of the
faculty Academic Council and was suspended indefinitely.

When he came back in 1991, it was with an invitation to be a fellow for a
year at the Stanford Humanities Center. Now 39, Knutson is an anthropologist
with a doctorate from the University of Washington.

But Knutson's is not a story of "hippie-protester-turned-
upwardly-mobile-professional." His path back to the Stanford campus has been
as unconventional as his departure from it.

After his suspension from the university, he went to work on a commercial
fishing boat in southeast Alaska, and what started as an interim job became
his livelihood. In 1979, he bought his own boat and began marketing his catch
to retailers.

The seasonal nature of the work allowed him to support a family (he and
his wife, Hing Lau Ng, have two sons) and to pursue an academic career.

He earned a bachelor's degree at the New School for Social Research in New
York City in 1974 and worked 10 years to finish a Ph.D. His doctoral
dissertation, "Systematically Distorted Communication Aboard Fishing Boats,"
examined the way power and authority operate in the small-group work setting.

At the Humanities Center, he is writing a book based on material in his
thesis that dramatizes a conflict between captain and crew aboard a fishing
vessel in Alaskan waters. Leading up to the conflict was "a gradual breakdown
of community in a dangerous situation. We worked with little sleep, under
tremendous pressure. Communication became strained to the breaking point."

He is also writing an autobiographical narrative that starts with him at
7, growing up in the mill town of Everett, Wash., then jumps to Stanford and
the anti-war movement. He then moves to the 1991 Gulf War and recalls
attending a Fourth of July parade last year in Ketchikan, Alaska, "with
7-year-old kids in their Desert Storm outfits, carrying their toy M-16s.
There were people holding up banners saying 'Vietnam Was a Just Cause.' "

Knutson has mixed feelings about being back on campus. The Stanford
Humanities Center, he said, is "fantastic, with a real collegial atmosphere."
He is enjoying the opportunity to concentrate on his writing, and the
temporary freedom from his normal daily responsibilities, which include
teaching at Seattle-area community colleges.

But sometimes, he said, when he walks around at night, he recalls scenes
from 20 years ago - police charging up the library steps, or 200
demonstrators swept off El Camino Real and arrested.

While he has applied for full-time university teaching posts, the
traditional academic life may not be for him, he said. "Academic culture
tends to mute the voice."

One thing Knutson has sought to avoid is being muted.

"Getting kicked out of this place was a major turning point in my life,
but it was not the end of the world for me," he said. "It complicated my
life, but I came out with my integrity intact."

-mas/protester-

920501Arc2243.html

This is an archived release.

This release is not available in any other form.
Images mentioned in this release are not available online.
Stanford News Service has an extensive library of images,
some of which may be available to you online.
Direct your request by EMail to newslibrary@stanford.edu.